NIELSEN REVISES RATINGS ON KIDS’ VIEWING

Nielsen Media Research on Monday revised its findings about the size of the kids TV audience. Last week it said that while television viewing by kids 2-12 was up 1.7 percent, the audience for Viacom’s Nickelodeon channel had fallen precipitously, down 11 percent in September, 17 percent in October, and 19 percent in November from the previous year. The findings reportedly caused Nickelodeon to begin doling out “make goods” to advertisers for failing to deliver minimum ratings. Nielsen’s latest revision, however, did not buck up the spirits of Viacom executives. The ratings company told the Wall Street Journal that actually overall viewing by children was not up 1.7 percent but down 2.9 percent. Its figures for Nickelodeon remained unchanged. Buttonholed by reporters at a media conference in New York, Viacom Chairman Philippe Dauman, who had called the original ratings results for Nickelodeon, “inexplicable,” said of the new results from Nielsen: “No one is more frustrated by that than myself.” However, he added in remarks to the conference, “As of now, however imperfect Nielsen is, it is the only game in town. … We are going to move on.”